Brian Cody has ruled Eoin Murphy out of Kilkenny’s entire Leinster Championship campaign which gets underway next weekend.
Cody will also be without Cillian Buckley, James Maher, Conor Delaney and Rob Lennon for the opening two games against Dublin and Carlow at least.
And while 2014 Hurler of the Year Richie Hogan is back in training as he tries to manage his long-running back problems, he has to be doubtful having not featured for the county since last year.
“It’s a bad run to get,” Cody acknowledged at yesterday’s Leinster Championship launch at the Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel.
“Eoin and Conor got them playing club matches, James got it training with the club. It’s just the situation we find ourselves in.
“[Murphy] had a great year last year. And before last year too. He’s a top goalkeeper. He’s not playing so we have two other goalkeepers now, Darren Brennan and Richie Reid, and we’d have a lot of confidence in them.”
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Cody said there’s “not a hope” of any of them being available for the Carlow game on May 19 but with a three-week break after that to the visit of Galway on June 9, it may open a window of opportunity for some.
He continued: “Cillian has been out for a long time. He’s back. Not hurling training, just running. We don’t have a timeframe for him.
“He’s such a focused fella. He’s absolutely intent on getting back. When? Who knows?”
Meanwhile, the Kilkenny boss poured scorn on a directive issued at the start of the year to referees to clamp down on head high challenges and handpasses, many of which are thought to be illegal throws.
“The referees are there to their job and it's not as if these are new rules coming in or anything like that. There was always a handpass, a proper way of handpassing and an improper way of handpassing.
“The danger of highlighting a rule like that is suddenly you can become kind of obsessed with it from the point of view of saying, 'Oh, I wonder'.
“It's like offside in soccer if you like - is he or isn't he? I know before this VAR thing you blew just in case almost but if you blow just in case you have to be very clear.
“The rule is there and it's the same with all the head high challenges or whatever they are. It's consistency.”
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VAR is being increasingly rolled out at the elite end of soccer though, despite the introduction of Hawk Eye at Croke Park and Semple Stadium, Cody doesn’t believe there’s much further scope for technology in Gaelic games.
"Ah, it would be a huge jump for everybody involved in the sport. I don't think you have to do something like that because it's done in another sport.
“What's happened before with the GAA, we tend to jump but we have a very good product. Hurling is strong.
“Referees are out there to make decisions and whether we agree or disagree with them they have the final decision and Hawk Eye is obviously there but it won't make any difference to ourselves and Dublin because it won't be there.
“There's no room for anything else there right now because it would be a huge leap.”
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